“Any attempts to change that is an attempt at airbrushing the truth and that is not acceptable.”

Tory backbencher Philip Davies added: “This is absolute drivel and I wouldn’t expect anything less from the Howard League for Penal Reform who are seemingly apologists for criminals. Once again, the victims of crime are left as an afterthought and the vast majority of the population would not agree with these thoughts.”

Mrs Crook’s comments come after it emerged that gang boss Colin Gunn, who is serving a life sentence for murder, has won the right to force prison officers to address him as “Mister”.

Writing in Criminal Justice Matters, the magazine of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, she said it had been easy for politicians to treat some sections of society as less than human.

“The action does not define the whole person,” she wrote. “By insisting that the offence overcomes all other parts of the person we are condemning them to a sub-human category for whom there is no hope.”

Research for the Howard League found many prisoners said the first step to a crime-free life would be losing the label of “offender”.